News

Florida State will play for the BCS title. Central Florida has earned a bid to a BCS bowl game. Bethune-Cookman advanced to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. Florida has won BCS championships, as has Miami... Read more

The last week of the regular season is here for Conference USA teams and the C-USA East and West divisions still are up for grabs between five teams.
East Carolina travels to Huntington, W.Va., on Friday for a showdown with Marshall... Read more

Bowl season is right around the corner and Conference USA appears to be fielding at least six eligible teams.
ECU, Rice, Tulane, and North Texas already are bowl eligible and MTSU and Marshall are one win away... Watch

Football in late October usually means contenders separating themselves from the rest of the field.
There will be several interesting matchups for the second half of this season in Conference USA... Read more

Last week could have been the bright spot on the Southern Mississippi schedule for the 2013 season — it was a bye.
The Golden Eagles are 0-5 on the year with two losses coming against Texas State and Florida International... Read more

If you enjoy Conference USA play, this is your weekend.
All 14 C-USA teams are in action Saturday and they are all in conference play. Lets take a look at the slate of C-USA games.
UTSA at Marshall: This is the only East vs... Read more

It is finally game week and Conference USA will square off in three prime games against the ACC.
Today Football.com talked to the three ACC coaches that are going head-to-head with the C-USA teams... Read more

Aug. 30: Florida Atlantic at Miami (FL) — Believe it or not this is the first meeting between the two Southern Florida schools. FAU began playing football in 2001 under former Miami head coach Howard Schnellenberger... Read more

A revamped Conference USA will field 14 teams instead of 12 for the 2013 college football season. Out goes Houston, UCF, SMU, and Memphis while FAU, FIU, Louisiana Tech, MTSU, North Texas, and UTSA enter... Read more

About

The FIU Panthers, or Florida International Panthers, were first established as a college football team in 2002. Representing Miami's Florida International University, the team were initially known as the Golden Panthers, but the word 'Golden' was dropped from their name in 2010. Their main rivals are the Florida Atlantic Owls, with whom they contest the Shula Bowl. The winner of the game receives the Don Shula Award.

From 2002 until 2004, the Panthers competed in NCAA Division I-AA as an independent. In 2005, they made the move up to the Division I FBS. In the process, they became the fastest team in college football history to rise to that level, although that record has since been surpassed. Between 2005 and 2012, they operated as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. In 2013, Florida International joined Conference USA and were placed in its East Division.

In 2010, the team enjoyed its first major success, winning a share of the Sun Belt Conference. As a result, they were invited to compete in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, where they defeated the Toledo Rockets. In total, they have appeared in two post-season bowl games, with their other appearance coming in the 2011 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl, where they lost to the Marshall Thundering Herd.

A number of players have passed through the FIU program and have gone on to compete in the National Football League. Some of the most notable examples include Antwan Barnes, Chandler Williams and Eugene "T. Y." Hilton.

The Panthers' home games are contested at the on-campus Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium, which is sometimes referred to as 'The Cage'. The venue opened in 1995 with a capacity of 7,500, but subsequent expansions, especially in 2001, have increased this capacity significantly. As a result, the highest recorded attendance at the venue came in 2011, when the Panthers played against the Duke Blue Devils in front of 22,682 fans.